The Montreal Metro is Canada's busiest rapid transit system, and North America's third busiest by daily ridership behind those of New York City and Mexico City, delivering an average of 1,298,400 daily unlinked passenger trips per weekday (as of Q4 2017).[2] In 2016, 354 million trips on the Metro were completed (transfers counted as separate trips).[6] According to the STM, the Metro system had transported over 7 billion passengers as of 2010. With the Metro, Montreal has built one of North America's largest urban rapid transit schemes, attracting the second-highest ridership per capita behind New York City.[7]

The Montreal Metro was inspired by the Paris Métro, which is clearly seen in the Metro's station design and rolling stock.[8]

Urban transit began in Montreal in 1861 when a line of horse-drawn cars started to operate on Craig (now St-Antoine) and Notre-Dame streets. Eventually, as the then Canadian metropolis grew, a comprehensive network of streetcar lines provided service almost everywhere. But urban congestion started to take its toll on streetcar punctuality, so the idea of an underground system was soon considered.[9]

In 1902, as European and American cities were inaugurating their first subway systems, the federal government created the Montreal Subway Company to promote the idea in Canada.

Starting in 1910, many proposals were tabled but the Montreal Metro would prove to be an elusive goal. First, the Montreal Street Railway Company, the Montreal Central Terminal Company and the Montreal Underground and Elevated Railway Company undertook fruitless negotiations with the city.[9] Then a year later, the Comptoir Financier Franco-Canadien and the Montreal Tunnel Company proposed tunnels under the city centre and the Saint-Lawrence River to link the emerging South Shore neighbourhoods but faced the opposition of railway companies.[10] The Montreal Tramways Company (MTC) was the first to receive the approval of the provincial government in 1913 and four years to start construction.[11] The reluctance of elected city officials to advance funds foiled this first attempt.

The issue of a subway remained present in the newspapers but World War I and the following recession hitting Montreal prevented any execution. The gradual return of the financial health during the 1920s brought the MTC project back and attracted support from the Premier of Quebec.[9] The Great Depression, indebting Montreal again and atrophying its streetcars attendance, overcame this new attempt and the next devised by Mayor Camillien Houde in 1939 as a way to provide work for the jobless masses.[12]

In 1959, a private company, the Société d'expansion métropolitaine, offered to build a rubber-tired metro but the Transportation Commission wanted its own network and rejected the offer.[15] This was the last missed opportunity, for the re-election of Jean Drapeau as mayor and the arrival of his right-hand man, Lucien Saulnier, changed everything. In the early 1960s, the western world experienced an economic boom and Quebec underwent its Quiet Revolution. From August 1, 1960, many municipal services were addressing the project and on November 3, 1961, the Montreal City Council voted appropriations amounting to $132 million ($1.06 billion in 2016) to construct and equip an initial network of 16 kilometres in length.[14]

The main line, or number 1 (Green Line) was to pass between the two most important arteries, Sainte-Catherine and Sherbrooke streets, more or less under the De Maisonneuve Boulevard. It would extend between the English-speaking west at Atwater station and French-speaking east at Frontenac. Line 2 (Orange Line) was to run from north of the downtown, from Crémazie station and to residential neighbourhoods to the south to the business district at Place-d'Armes station.

Construction of the first two lines began May 23, 1962 under the supervision of the Director of Public Works, Lucien L'Allier, the "father of the subway". On June 11, 1963 the construction costs for tunnels being lower than expected, Line 2 was extended by two stations at each end and the new terminus became the Henri-Bourassa and Bonaventure stations. The project, which employed more than 5,000 workers at its height, and cost the lives of 12 of them, ended on October 14, 1966. The service was opened gradually between October 1966 and April 1967 as the stations were completed.

A third line was planned. It was to use Canadian National Railway (CN) tracks passing under the Mount Royal to reach the northwest suburb of Cartierville from the city centre. Unlike the previous two lines, trains were to be partly running above ground. Negotiations with the CN and municipalities were stalling as Montreal was chosen in November 1962 to hold the 1967 Universal Exposition (Expo 67). Having to make a choice, the city decided that a number 4 line linking Montreal to the South Shore suburbs following a plan similar to those of the early century was more necessary.[16]

Line 3 was never built and the number was never used again. The railway, already used for a commuter train to the North Shore at Deux-Montagnes, was completely renovated in the early 1990s and effectively replaced the planned third line. The next line would thus be numbered 5 (Blue Line).

The Montreal municipal administration asked municipalities of the South Shore of the Saint Lawrence River which one would be interested in the Metro and Longueuil got the link. Line 4 (Yellow Line) would therefore pass under the river, from Berri-de-Montigny station, junction of lines 1 and 2, to Longueuil. A stop was added in between to access the site of Expo 67, built on two islands of the Hochelaga Archipelago in the river. Saint Helen's Island, on which the station of the same name was built, was massively enlarged and consolidated with several nearby islands (including Ronde Island) using backfill excavated during the construction of the Metro. Notre Dame Island, adjacent, was created from scratch with the same material. Line 4 was completed on April 1, 1967, in time for the opening of the World's Fair.[16]

The first Metro network was completed with the public opening of the Yellow Line on April 28, 1967. The cities of Montreal, Longueuil and Westmount had assumed the entire cost of construction and equipment of $213.7 million ($1.6 billion in 2016). Montreal became the seventh city in North America to operate a subway. The 1960s being very optimistic years, Metro planning did not escape the general exuberance of the time, and a 1967 study ″Horizon 2000″[17] imagined a network of 160 kilometers of tunnels for the year 2000.[18]

In 1970, the Montreal Urban Community (MUC) was created. This group was made of municipalities that occupy the Island of Montreal and the city of Montreal was the biggest participant. MUC's mission was to provide standardized services at a regional level, one of them being transportation. The MUC Transportation Commission was thus created at the same time to serve as prime contractor for the Metro extensions. It merged all island transport companies and became the Société de transport de la communauté urbaine de Montréal (STCUM) in 1985 and then the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) in 2002.

The success of the Metro increased the pressure to extend the network to other populated areas, including the suburbs on the Island of Montreal. After being awarded, in May 1970, the 1976 Summer Olympics, a loan of $430 million ($2.7 billion in 2016) was approved by the MUC on February 12, 1971 to fund the extensions of Lines 1 and 2 and the construction of a transverse line: Line 5. The Government of Quebec agreed to bear 60% of the costs.

The work on the extensions started October 14, 1971 with Line 1 (Green) towards the east to reach the site where the Olympic Stadium was to be built and Autoroute 25 (Honoré-Beaugrand station) that could serve as a transfer point for visitors arriving from outside. The extensions were an opportunity to make improvements to the network, such as new trains, larger stations and even semi-automatic control. The first extension was completed in June 1976 just before the Olympics. Line 1 was later extended to the southwest to reach the suburbs of Verdun and LaSalle with the Angrignon as the terminus station, named after the zoo. This station opened in September 1978.

In the process, further extensions were planned and in 1975 spending was expected to reach reached $1.6 billion ($7.3 billion in 2016). Faced with these soaring costs, the Government of Quebec declared a moratorium May 19, 1976 to the all-out expansion desired by Mayor Drapeau. Tenders were frozen, including those of Line 2 after Snowdon and those of Line 5 whose works were yet already underway. A struggle then ensued between the MUC and the Government of Quebec as any extension could not be done without the agreement of both parties. The Montreal Transportation Office may have tried to put the government in front of a fait accompli by awarding large contracts to build the tunnel between Namur station and Bois-Franc just before the moratorium entry into force.[19]

In 1977, the newly elected government partially lifted the moratorium on the extension of Line 2 and the construction of Line 5. The Orange Line was gradually extended westward to Place-Saint-Henri (1980) and Snowdon (1981). As the stations were completed, the service was extended. In December 1979 Quebec presented its "integrated transport plan" in which Line 2 was to be tunnelled to Du College and Line 5 from Snowdon to Anjou. The plan proposed no other underground lines as the government preferred the option of converting existing railway lines to overground Metro ones. The mayors of the MUC, initially reluctant, accepted this plan when Quebec promised in February 1981 to finance future extensions fully. The moratorium was then modestly lifted on Line 2 that reached Du College (1984) and finally Côte-Vertu (1986). This line took the shape of an "U" linking the north of the island to the city centre and serving two very populous axes.

The various moratoriums and technical difficulties encountered during the construction of the fourth line stretched its realization over fourteen years. This Line 5 (Blue), which runs through the centre of the island of Montreal, crossed the east branch of Line 2 (Jean-Talon station) in 1986 and its west branch (Snowdon station) in 1988. Because it was not crowded, STCUM at first operated the line weekdays only from 5:30 am to 7:30 pm and was circulating three-car trains. Students from the University of Montreal, the main source of customers, obtained extension of the closing time to 11:10 pm and then 0:15 am in 2002.[20]

In the late 1980s, the original network length had nearly quadrupled in twenty years and exceeded that of Toronto, but the plans did not stop there. In its 1983-1984 scenario, the MUC planned a new underground Line 7 (Pie-IX to Montreal-Nord) and several surface lines numbered 6 (Du Collège to Repentigny), 8 (Radisson to Pointe-aux-Trembles), 10 (Vendôme to Lachine) and 11 (Angrignon to LaSalle). In 1985 however, a new government in Quebec rejected the project, replacing the Metro lines by commuter train lines in its own 1988 transport plan. Yet the provincial elections of 1989 approaching, the Line 7 project reappeared and the extensions of Line 5 to Anjou (Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire, Langelier and Galeries d'Anjou) and Line 2 northward (Deguire/Poirier, Bois-Franc and Salaberry) were announced.

At the beginning of the 1990s, there was a significant deficit in public finances across Canada, especially in Quebec, and an economic recession. The Metro ridership decreased and the Government of Quebec removed subsidies for the operation of urban public transport.[21] Faced with this situation, the extensions projects were put on hold and the MUC prioritized the renovation of its infrastructures.

In 1996, the Government of Quebec created a supra-municipal agency, the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), whose mandate is to coordinate the development of transport throughout the Greater Montreal area. The AMT was responsible, among others, for the development of the Metro and suburban trains.

On June 1, 2017, the AMT was disbanded and replaced by two distinct agencies by the Loi 76 (English: Bill 76), the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), mandated to manage and integrate road transport and public transportation in Greater Montreal; and the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM), which took over all operations from the former Agence métropolitaine de transport. The RTM now operates Montreal's commuter rail and metropolitan bus services, and is the second busiest such system in Canada after Toronto's GO Transit.

Announced in 1998 by the STCUM,[22][23] the project to extend Line 2 (Orange) past the Henri-Bourassa terminus to the city of Laval, passing under the Rivière des Prairies, was launched March 18, 2002.[14] The extension was decided and funded by the Government of Quebec. The AMT received the mandate of its implementation but the ownership and operation of the line stayed with the Société de transport de Montréal (STCUM successor). The work completed, opening to the public happened April 28, 2007. This extension added 5.2 km to the network and three stations in Laval (Cartier, De la Concorde and Montmorency). As of 2009, ridership increased by 60,000 a day with the new stations, making a success of this extension.[24]

Since 2004, most of the STM investment has been directed to rolling stock and infrastructure renovation programs.[25] New trains (MPM-10) are being delivered and should, by 2018, replace the older ones (MR-63). Tunnels are being repaired and several stations, including Berri-UQAM, have been several years in rehabilitation. Many electrical[26] and ventilation structures[27][28] on the surface are in 2016 completely rebuilt to modern standards.

In December 2011, the AMT proposed its "Vision 2020" plan expanding the Line 5 (Blue) towards the borough of Anjou and Line 2 (Orange) towards Bois-Franc train station.[29] On September 20, 2013 the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and provincial government announced the extension of the Line 5 east as far as Anjou with five new stations. After the Parti Québécois lost the 2014 provincial election, the future of the Blue Line extension came into question. The successor Liberal government had expressed interest in extending mass-transit to the Airport and implementing a light rail line on the new Champlain Bridge under construction. The project could cost up to $3 billion based on a February 2016 reassessment.[30] Because of funding for infrastructure promised by the federal government in 2015, the Blue Line project remains a priority, according to Quebec and the STM.[31] In April 2018, the successor Liberal government, along with the Federal government, announced firm plans for the Anjou extension.[32]

In 2017, Valérie Plante proposed the Ligne Rose (Pink Line) as part of her campaign for the office of Mayor of Montreal.[33] The new route would have 29 stations and would primarily link North Montreal with the Downtown areas, as well as the western end of NDG and Lachine. Plante was elected Mayor on November 5, 2017.

The Montreal Metro consists of four lines,[34] which are usually identified by their colour or terminus station. The terminus station in the direction of travel is used to differentiate between directions.

The Yellow Line is the shortest line, with three stations, built for Expo 67. Metro lines that leave the Île de Montréal are the Orange Line, which continues to Laval, and the Yellow Line, which continues to Longueuil.

Metro service starts at 05:30, and the last trains start their run between 00:30 and 01:00 on weekdays and Sunday, and between 01:00 and 01:30 on Saturday. During rush hour, there are two to four minutes between trains on the Orange and Green Lines. The frequency, however, decreases to 12 minutes during late nights.

Fare payment is via a barrier system accepting magnetic tickets and RFID like contacless cards. A rechargeable contactless smart card called "OPUS" unveiled on April 21, 2008 provides seamless integration with other transit networks of neighboring cities by being capable of holding multiple transport tickets: tickets, books or subscriptions, a subscription for Montreal only and commuter train tickets.[37] Moreover, unlike the magnetic stripe cards, which had been sold alongside the new OPUS cards up until May 2009, the contactless cards are not at risk of becoming demagnetized and rendered useless and do not require patrons to slide them through a reader.

Since 2015, customers have been able to purchase an OPUS card reader to recharge their personal card online from a computer.[38] In 2016, the STM is developing a smart phone application featuring NFC technology, which could replace the OPUS card.[39]

Metro stations are equipped with the MétroVision information screens displaying advertising, news headlines from RDI and MétéoMédia weather informations, as well as STM-specific informations regarding service changes, service delays and information pertaining to using the system. Since the end of 2014 the STM has installed screens in all of the 68 stations. Berri-UQAM station was the first station to have these screens installed.[40]

Montreal Metro ridership has more than doubled since it opened: the number of passengers increased from 136 million in 1967 to 357 million in 2014. Montreal has one of North America's busiest public transportation systems with, after New York, the largest number of users compared to its population. However, this growth was not continuous: in the late 1960s and early 1990s, ridership had declined in some periods. From 1996 to 2015 the number of passengers grew. Today, portions of the busiest lines, such as Line 1 between Berri-UQAM and McGill stations or Line 2 eastern branch are experiencing overcrowding during peak hours. It is not uncommon, in these sections, that travelers must let several trains pass before boarding.[41] The conditions between these stations worsen in summer because of the lack of air conditioning and heat generated by the trains.

The network operations funding (maintenance, equipment purchase and salaries) is provided by the STM. However, tickets and subscriptions covering only 40% of the actual operations costs, the shortfall must be offset by the urban agglomeration of Montreal (28%), the Montreal Metropolitan Community (5%) and the Government of Quebec (23%).[44]

The STM does not keep separate accounts for Metro and buses services. The following figures therefore include both activities. In 2016, direct operating revenue planned by the STM totalled $667 million. To compensate for the reduced rates, the city will pay $513 million plus $351 million from Quebec. For a budget of $1.53 billion, salaries account for 57% of expenditures, followed in importance by financial expenses (22%) resulting from a 2.85 billion debt. For the Metro only, wages represented 75% of the $292 million operating costs, before electricity costs (9%).[44]

Heavy investments (network extensions) are entirely funded by the provincial government. Renovations and service improvements are subsidized up to 100% by the Government of Canada, the province and the urban agglomeration. For example, 74% of the trains replacement cost is paid for by Quebec and 33% of the bill for the ventilation structures upgrading is paid for by the federal government. Small investments to maintain the network in working order remain entirely the responsibility of the STM.[45]

Montreal Metro facilities are patrolled daily by 155 STM inspectors and 115 agents of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) assigned to the subway.[46] They are in contact with the command centre of the Metro which has 2,000 cameras distributed on the network, coupled with a computerized visual recognition system.[47]

On station platforms, emergency points are available with a telephone connected to the command centre, an emergency power supply cut-off switch and a fire extinguisher.[48] The power supply system is segmented into short sections that can be independently powered, so that following an incident a single train can be stopped while the others reach the nearest station.

In tunnels, a raised path at trains level facilitates evacuation and allows people movement without walking on the tracks. Every 15 meters, directions are indicated by illuminated yellow signs. Every 150 meters, emergency stations with telephones, power switches and fire hoses can be found. At the ventilation shafts locations in the old tunnels or every 750 meters in recent tunnels sections (Laval), emergency exits reach the surface.

On the surface, blue fire hydrants in the streets are dry risers connected to the Metro fire control system. If a fire breaks out in tunnels, firefighters connect the red fire hydrant with the blue terminals to power the subway system. This decoupling prevents accidental flooding.[49]

The design of the Metro was heavily influenced by Montreal's winter conditions. Unlike other cities' subways, nearly all station entrances in Montreal are set back from the sidewalk and completely enclosed; usually in small, separate buildings or within building facades. They are equipped with swivelling "butterfly" doors meant to mitigate the wind caused by train movements that can make doors difficult to open.[50] The entire system runs underground and some stations are directly connected to buildings, making the Metro an integral part of Montreal's Underground City.

The network has 68 stations, four of which have connections between Metro lines, and five connect to the commuter train network. They are mostly named after streets adjacent to them.[51]

Platforms, 152.4 metres (500 feet) long and at least 3.8 metres wide, are positioned on either sides of the tracks except in the Lionel-Groulx, Snowdon and Jean-Talon stations, where they are superimposed to facilitate transfers between lines in certain directions. Charlevoix and De l'Eglise stations are designed with bunk platforms for engineering reasons, the basement rock in their area (shales) being too brittle for a station with more footprint. The terminus stations of future extensions could be equipped with central platforms[52] to accommodate a turning loop.

The Montreal Metro is renowned for its architecture and public art. Under the direction of Drapeau, a competition among Canadian architects was held to decide the design of each station, ensuring that every station was built in a different style by a different architect. Several stations, such as Berri-UQAM, are important examples of modernist architecture, and various system-wide design choices were informed by the International Style. However, numerous interventions, such as the installation of public telephones and loudspeakers, with visible wiring, have had a significant impact on the elegance of many stations.

Along with the Stockholm Metro, Montreal pioneered the installation of public art in the Metro among capitalist countries,[citation needed] a practice that beforehand was mostly found in socialist and communist nations (the Moscow Metro being a case in point). More than fifty stations are decorated with over one hundred works of public art, such as sculpture, stained glass, and murals by noted Quebec artists, including members of the famous art movement, the Automatistes.

Some of the most important works in the Metro include the stained-glass window at Champ-de-Mars station, the masterpiece of major Quebec artist Marcelle Ferron; and the Guimard entrance at Square-Victoria-OACI station, largely consisting of parts from the famous entrances designed for the Paris Métro, on permanent loan[53] since 1966 by the RATP to commemorate its cooperation in constructing the Metro. Installed in 1967 (the 100th anniversary of Hector Guimard's birth), this is the only authentic Guimard entrance in use outside Paris.a

The Montreal Metro had been a rather late adopter of accessibility compared to many subway systems (including those older than the Metro), much to the dismay of accessibility advocates in Montreal.[54] The first accessible stations on the system were the three stations in Laval, Cartier, De la Concorde and Montmorency which opened in 2007 as part of the Orange Line extension. Four existing stations - Lionel-Groulx, Berri-UQAM, Henri-Bourassa, and Cote-Vertu had been made accessible during the course of 2009 to 2010.[55]Bonaventure is equipped with elevators between the platforms and ticket hall; however, elevators connecting the latter to the street level have not yet been installed.

One much-discussed issue is the lack of elevators at Vendôme, the station serving the new McGill University Health Centre mega-hospital. It was decided that retrofitting the existing entrance building for elevators would be prohibitively expensive; as a result, in December 2015, the Quebec government announced funding for the construction of a second entrance building for the station, which will include a direct underground connection to the hospital and will be wheelchair-accessible. [56] Construction began in autumn 2017. In the meantime, the STM has set up a bus line, 77 CUSM/Station Lionel-Groulx, connecting the wheelchair-accessible Lionel-Groulx station with the hospital.

The Montreal Metro's car fleet uses rubber tires instead of steel wheels. Because the Metro runs entirely underground, the cars and the electrical system are not weatherproof. The trains are 2.5 m (8 ft 23⁄8 in) wide, narrower than the trains used by most other North American subway systems. This narrow width allowed the use of single tunnels (for both tracks) in construction of the Metro lines.[57]

The first generation of rolling stock in Montreal went beyond just adopting the MP 59 car from Paris. North American cities building subway systems in the 1960s and 1970s (Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Atlanta) were in search of modern rolling stock that not only best fitted their needs but also encompassed a change in industrial design that focused on the aesthetics and performances. The Montreal trains are now among the oldest North American subway trains in service - the Canadian VickersMR-63 dating back to the system's opening in 1966 - but extended longevity is expected of rolling stock operated under fully sheltered conditions.

Unlike the subway cars of most other systems, Montreal's cars do not have air conditioning.[58] In summer, the lack of cooled air can make trips uncomfortable for passengers.[59] The claim, stated by the STM, is that the Metro being built entirely underground, air conditioning would heat the tunnels potentially creating a larger problem (the subway system in Sapporo also suffers from that same issue).

Switches use conventional points on the standard gauge track to guide trains. Rubber tires, rolling on concreterollways, keep supporting the full weight of the trains as they go through switches. Guideways are provided in order to ensure there are no gaps in the electrical power supply.

Montreal's Metro trains are made of low-alloy high-tensile steel, painted blue with a thick white stripe running lengthwise. Trains are assembled in three-, six- or nine-car lengths. Each three-car segment element consists of two motor cab cars encompassing a trailer car (M-T-M). Each car is 2.5 m (8 ft 23⁄8 in) wide and has three (MPM-10) or four (MR-63, MR-73) wide bi-parting leaf doors on each side for rapid passenger entry and egress. Design specifications called for station dwell times of typically 8 to 15 seconds. In response to overcrowding on the Orange Line, a redesign of the MR-73 cars removed some seats to provide more standing room. The newest Bombardier MPM-10 trains are open-gangway, allowing passengers to move between cars once on board such that the passenger load is more evenly distributed.

Each car has two sets of bogies (trucks), each with four sets of support tires, guide tires and backup conventional steel wheels. The motor cars bogies each have two direct-current traction motors coupled to reduction gears and differentials. Montreal's Metro trains use electromagnetic brakes, generated by the train's kinetic energy until it has slowed down to about 10 km/h (6.2 mph). The train then uses composite brake blocks made of yellow birch injected with peanut oil to bring it to a complete stop. Two sets are applied against the treads of the steel wheels for friction braking. Hard braking produces a characteristic burnt popcorn scent. Wooden brake shoes perform well, but if subjected to numerous high-speed applications they develop a carbon film that diminishes brake performance.[citation needed]

Rubber tires on the Montreal Metro transmit minimal vibration and help the cars go uphill more easily and negotiate turns at high speeds. However, the advantages of rubber tires are offset by noise levels generated by traction motors which are noisier than the typical North American subway car. Trains can climb grades of up to 6.5% and economize the most energy when following a humped-station profile (track profiles that descend to accelerate after leaving a station and climb before entering the station). Steel-wheel train technology has undergone significant advances and can better round tight curves, and climb and descend similar grades and slopes but despite these advances, steel-wheel trains still cannot operate at high speeds (45 mph or 72 km/h) on the same steep or tightly curved track profiles as a train equipped with rubber tires.

All lines but the Yellow Line are equipped with automatic train control. Generally, the train operator does the closing of doors and starts the DA (Départ automatique, automatic departure), and then the train drives itself. The train operator can also drive the train manually at his or her discretion. Signalling is effected through coded pulses sent through the rails. Coded speed orders and station stop positions transmitted through track beacons are captured by beacon readers mounted under the driver cabs. The information sent to the train's electronic modules conveys speed information, and it is up to the train automatic control system computer to conform to the imposed speed. Additionally, the train computer can receive energy-saving instructions from track beacons, providing the train with four different economical coasting modes, plus one mode for maximum performance. In case of manual control, track speed is displayed on the cab speedometer indicating the maximum permissible speed. The wayside signals consist of point (switch/turnout) position indicators in proximity to switches and inter-station signalling placed at each station stop. Trains often reach their maximum speed of 70–72 km/h (43.5–44.7 mph) in 16 to 26 seconds depending on grade and load.

Trains are programmed to stop at certain station positions with a precise odometer (accurate to plus or minus five centimetres). They receive their braking program and station stop positions orders (one-third, two-thirds, or end of station) from track beacons prior to entering the station, with additional beacons in the station for ensuring stop precision. The last beacon is positioned at precisely 12 turns of wheels from the end of the platform, which help improve the overall precision of the system.[citation needed]

Trains draw current from two sets of 750-voltdirect currentguide bar/third rails on either side of each motor car. Nine-car trains draw large currents of up to 6,000 amperes,[citation needed] requiring that all models of rolling stock have calibrated traction motor control systems to prevent power surges, arcing and breaker tripping. Both models have electrical braking (using motors) to assist primary friction braking, reducing the need to replace the brake pads.

The trains are equipped with double coverage broadband radio systems, provided by Thales Group.[60]

Bombardier TransportationMR-73, in use since 1976. They are progressively migrating to the Green Line as newer Azur trains are being deployed on the Orange Line.

Bombardier-AlstomMPM-10, named "Azur" by the public in 2012,[61] entered service in 2016. Slated to replace the MR-63 model. They have fully connected train wagons that allow passengers to move from one end of the train to the other.[62]

Canadian VickersMR-63, were in service since the metro's opening in 1966 until 2018. Of the original 369 cars built, 33 were destroyed in two separate accidents. Since 21 June 2018, the MR-63 has been completely retired after 52 years of service.[63]

An older generation MR-63 train is in the Beaugrand Garage. Note the turntable to change trucks in the foreground.

Idle trains are stored in four garages: Angrignon, Beaugrand, Saint-Charles and Montmorency. A fifth is under construction. Except Angrignon, they are all underground and can accommodate around 46% of the rolling stock. Remaining trains are parked in terminus tail tracks.

Angrignon garage, west of Angrignon Line 1 terminus, is a surface building next to Angrignon Park housing six tracks accepting two nine-car trains each.

Beaugrand garage is located east of Line 1 terminus Honoré-Beaugrand. It is entirely under the Chénier-Beaugrand Park, and its main access point is through the Honoré-Beaugrand station. It has seven tracks and accommodates light maintenance on MR-63 cars with two test tracks.[71]

Saint-Charles garage, north of Henri-Bourassa terminus, is located under Gouin Park. With eight tracks, allowing 20 trains to be parked, it is the main garage of Line 2.[72] Also, under Jeanne-Sauvé Park, a training facility used by the firefighters contains one of the burnt MR-63 cars from 1973 and an obsolete picking train.

Montmorency garage is built perpendicular to its terminal station to allow an easier potential expansion of the Line 2 deeper in Laval territory.[73]

Cote-Vertu garage is under construction underground at the end of Thimens boulevard to accommodate additional MPM-10 trains on Line 2.[74] Accessible via a 600 metres tunnel, it will house a small maintenance facility and two long tracks for a total of twelve parking places. Two more tracks could be added later with the line extension.[75]

Heavy work trains are hauled with sizeable tractors such as this old (1966) "Duplex". Traction is effected through the rubber-tired wheels, and guidance through the retractable flanged wheel. This tractor can also operate on the road.

Rolling stock maintenance is effected in four facilities, in three locations. Two small tracks are located at Montmorency and Beaugrand garages, and two large are at the Plateau d'Youville facility. A fifth facility is under construction at the Cote-Vertu garage.

Plateau d'Youville

The Plateau d'Youville facility in the north end of the city is located at the intersection of Crémazie and Saint-Laurent Boulevards. It provides heavy maintenance of buses, Metro cars, light maintenance of MR-73 Metro cars and is the main base for the track maintenance workshops (where track sections are pre-assembled prior to installation).[76]

Centre d'attachement Duvernay is a garage and base for maintenance of way equipment. It accesses the network through the Line 1/Line 2 interchange southeast of Lionel-Groulx. The access building is located at the corner of Duvernay and Vinet streets in Sainte-Cunégonde.

Centre d'attachement Viau is a garage and base for maintenance of way equipment. It accesses the network immediately west of the Viau station (Line 1). The access building is within the Viau station building; facilities are visible from trains going west of the station.

Berri-UQAM link is connecting Lines 1 and 4 south of Berri-UQAM station.

Snowdon link and tail is an interchange track between Lines 2 and 5 south/west of Snowdon station used for the storage of maintenance of way equipment. There are no surface facilities. The tail tracks west of Snowdon station extend about 790 metres west of the station, reaching the border of the city of Hampstead. The end of the track is marked by an emergency exit on the corner of Queen Mary and Dufferin Roads.[77]

Cote-Vertu tail track extends 900 metres after the terminus station towards the intersection of Grenet and Deguire streets.[78]

On June 12, 2008 the City of Montreal released its overall transportation plan for the immediate future. On April 9th, 2018 construction on the Blue line's five new stations was announced and will begin in 2020.[79] The following projects were given priority status in the overall transportation scheme:

The Blue Line extension from Saint-Michel station up to the boroughs of Saint-Leonard and Anjou, committing to the line's original design. It would consist of five new stations: Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire, Langelier and Anjou.

A 2006 study rejected the possibility and cost of an extension from Lionel-Groulx station to the City of Brossard on the south shore of Montreal as an alternative to the proposed light rail project in the Champlain bridge corridor.

In 2012, the AMT study Vision 2020,[83] proposed extending the Yellow Line under Longueuil with six new stations.[80]

On July 22, 2007, the mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, with the ridership success of the current Laval extension, announced his wish to loop the Orange Line from Montmorency to Côte-Vertu stations with the addition of six (or possibly seven) new stations (three in Laval and another three in Montreal). He proposed that Transports Quebec, the provincial transport department, set aside $100 million annually to fund the project, which is expected to cost upwards of $1.5 billion.[84]

On May 26, 2011, Vaillancourt, after the successful opening of highway 25 toll bridge in the eastern part of Laval, proposed that Laval develop its remaining territories with a transit-oriented development (TOD) build around five new Metro stations: four on the west branch (Gouin, Lévesque, Notre-Dame and Carrefour) of the Orange Line and one more on the east branch (De l'Agora). The next to last station on the west branch would act as a corresponding station between the east and the west branches of the line.[85][86]

In the early years of the Montreal Metro's life, a unique mode of advertising was used. In some downtown tunnels, cartoons depicting an advertiser's product were mounted on the walls of the tunnel at the level of the cars' windows. A retail film processing outfit called Direct Film advertised on the north wall in the Westbound track of the Guy (now Guy-Concordia)-to-Atwater Station (Green Line) during 1967-1969. Strobe lights, aimed at the frames of the cartoon and triggered by the passing train, sequentially illuminated the images so that they appeared to the viewer (passenger) on the train as a movie.[87] Today known as "tunnel movies" or "tunnel advertising", they have been installed in many cities' subways around the world in recent years, for example in the Southgate tube station in London and the MBTA Red Line in Boston[88].

^a Although reproductions using original molds were given to Mexico City (Metro Bellas Artes on line 8), Chicago (Van Buren Station on the Metra network), Lisbon (Picoas station on the yellow line) and Moscow (Kievskaya station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya).

1.
Hector Guimard
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Hector Guimard was a French architect, who is now the best-known representative of the Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These rationalist ideas provided the basis for his form of Art Nouveau. In 1884 he was awarded three bronze and two medals at the school for his work. In 1885 he received awards in all of the competitions at École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs including four bronze medallions, five silver, and the schools Grande Prix dArchitecture. In 1885 Guimard began his studies at the École Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, later, in 1890, he was awarded a silver metal for modelled ornament at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1891 Guimard became an Assistant professor in geometry, shadow. He was named a professor the year in 1892 of the girls section and was also named a professor of perspective in 1894. In 1893 he designed the lettering and street numbers for the Hotel Villa de la Réunion at 142 avenue de Versailles, Paris, the following year Guimard visited the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, designed by Victor Horta, and the latters works was to become a profound inspiration. His first solo commission and breakthrough came in 1894, when he designed Castel Béranger at 14, rue La Fontaine, Paris, for Mme. Carried out over four years, he persuaded his client to abandon a more restrained design, in a single commission Guimard demonstrated how architecture and the industrial arts could be united in a single building to create a unified, modern scheme. The Castel Béranger made Guimard famous and he soon had many commissions and this approach culminated between 1909 and 1912 when he created his own home, Hotel Guimard where ovoid rooms contained unique pieces of furniture which are considered integral parts of the building. If the skylights favored by Victor Horta are rather absent in his work, Guimard made noteworthy experiments in space, but other buildings of his, like the splendid Nozal Hotel, employ a rational, symmetrical, square-based style like that of Viollet-le-Duc. The curious, inventive Guimard was also a precursor of industrial standardization and his greatest success here – in spite of some scandals – was his famous entrances to the Paris Metro, based on the ornamented structures of Viollet-le-Duc. The idea is taken up – but with less success – in 1907 with a catalogue of cast iron elements applicable to buildings, Artistic Cast Iron and his inimitable stylistic vocabulary suggests plants and organic matter, while remaining abstract. Flexible mouldings and a sense of movement are found in stone as well as wood carvings, Guimard created abstract two-dimensional patterns that were used for stained glass, ceramic panels, wrought iron, wallpaper or fabric. Despite Guimards innovations and talent, the press grew tired of him—not so much with his work and his relationship with the clergyman who commissioned him to build the Humbert de Romans Concert Hall became acrimonious by the time of its completion in 1901, and the clergyman left France. Within five years the magnificent concert venue was demolished, it is now known by photographs. A large number of his Paris Métro station entrances, including all of the large pavilions such as the one at Bastille, were demolished

2.
Square-Victoria-OACI station
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Square-Victoria–OACI is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal. It is located in Victoria Square near the Quartier international de Montréal district, in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station opened on February 6,1967, four months after most of the initial network, and was briefly the terminus of the Orange Line until Bonaventure station was opened a week later. The station is a side platform station, its central mezzanine is connected to a very long tunnel running along Beaver Hall Hill and under Victoria Square. Each of the exits is connected to another building or buildings via the underground city. The Belmont exit is connected to and located in the 1080 Beaver Hall Hill building, the station was designed by Irving Sager. The southern rotunda formerly contained a multimedia installation entitled Ars Natura, the most famous artwork, however, is one of Hector Guimards art nouveau entrance porticos from the Paris Métro. It is located within Victoria Square on the Saint Antoine entrance and it was recently removed, completely restored, and reinstalled. The station is equipped with the MétroVision information screens which displays news, commercials, until the spring of 2014, the station was named Square-Victoria. In June 2014, the station was renamed Square-Victoria–OACI, referring to the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization. This was done to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ICAOs presence in Montreal. com - photos, information, and trivia

3.
MPM-10
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The MPM-10, also known as the Azur, is a fleet of subway trains currently under production by Bombardier Transportation for the Montreal Metro. A test train was delivered in 2014, and they were expected to fully replace the aging MR-63 trains by 2018. The first MPM-10 train entered service on Line 2 on February 7,2016. In May 2006, the Government of Quebec announced the negotiation of a $1.2 billion contract to replace the MR-63 fleet of 336 cars, Alstom voiced its dismay over directly awarding the contract without a bidding process. Negotiations between the STM and Bombardier were ongoing until 2007, the negotiations focused on the projects cost controls, terms of contract, train specifications and warranty. If negotiations had failed, the Quebec government and the STM would have reverted to a bidding process, on January 10,2008, Quebec Superior Court Judge Joel Silcoff rendered his decision regarding Alstoms filing of legal action against the Quebec governments Ministry of Transportation. The latter sought to bypass the bidding process, citing that Bombardier was the only candidate capable of fulfilling the eventual contract. Silcoff ruled in favour of Alstom, enabling the company to bid on the contract, on February 6,2008, the Government of Quebec decided to begin the bidding process, which would serve to save time, delaying delivery of the first trains by 9 to 12 months. CSR Zhuzhou also proposed the construction of a factory in Quebec, creating up to 1,000 jobs, spanish company CAF also expressed interest in the project, citing their experience in building rubber-tyred trains. However, the STM subsequently rejected both proposals, in October 2010, the Quebec government officially gave the contract to the Bombardier-Alstom consortium, valued at CA$1.2 billion. Bombardier expected the new cars to begin entering service by February 2014. In May 2013, the STM finished preparing the tunnels for to the reception of the first test train and this work included grinding concrete on some 200m of tunnel, where lasers measurements indicated that scraping might occur due to the new trains softer suspension. The first prototype train was unveiled in late 2013, and was delivered in April 2014, tests of the prototype revealed several incompatibilities with Montréals infrastructure, including insufficient electrical power. In January 2015 Bombardier suspended production for six months because of delays with the completion of the train control software. In January 2015, production of new Azurs was temporarily halted due to software installation, as of April 2015, only 4 fully functional MPM-10 trains had been delivered to the STM, while 28 more cars had been assembled out of 468 sold before production was halted. Bombardier blamed one of the responsible for the automatic driving controls on the new trains for the delay. By the end of 2015, the issues were resolved and the trains remained on track to be completed by the 2018 deadline date. After six months of testing, the first of the new cars entered revenue service at 10 am on February 7,2016

4.
Montmorency station (Montreal Metro)
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Montmorency is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal. It is located in the Laval-des-Rapides district of Laval, Quebec, the station is part of an extension to the line to Laval and opened on April 28,2007, becoming the northern terminus of the Orange Line. With the addition of the new stations, the Metro now generates an extra 60,000 daily passengers, as of 2010,1,050,000 daily passengers use the Metro. It is a side platform station. This station has the highest ceilings of any station in the network, the wall panels are decorated with tiling in diagonal stripes of retro shades of cyan, navy, straw yellow and brick red. The station is equipped with the MétroVision information screens which displays news, commercials, the station is located across the street from Cégep Montmorency. The CEGEP got its name from François de Montmorency-Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, a large bus terminal with 10 platforms and an indoor waiting area adjoins the station. The building, which is owned by the AMT features an AMT ticket counter as well as a convenience store, in addition, the station has parking for 1342 cars —644 free outdoor park and ride spaces and 698 paying spaces. The indoor spaces cost $7 a day or $80 per month, all bus traffic enters and leaves on Boulevard de lAvenir. Cégep Montmorency Centre Laval Place Bell List of Agence métropolitaine de transport park and ride lots

5.
Plamondon station
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Plamondon is a station on Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal. It is located in the Côte-des-Neiges section of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec, the station opened on June 29,1982, it served as the western terminus of the Orange Line, replacing Côte-Sainte-Catherine station, until the extension to Du Collège was completed in 1984. The station is a side platform station with an entrance at either end. The northern entrance is integrated into a housing project at the corner of Avenue Plamondon. The southern entrance is located on the corner of Van Horne avenue and Victoria avenue near a commercial center, the station decor is divided in two to reflect the two entrances, with blue panels to the north and reddish-pink to the south. The station was designed by Patrice Gauthier and this station is named for av. Plamondon, so named by Montreal city council in 1911 without a stated reason and it may be named for Quebec painter Antoine Plamondon or singer Rodolphe Plamondon. com 2011 STM System Map Metro Map

6.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century

7.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different

8.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems

9.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide

10.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in

11.
Rubber-tyred metro
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A rubber-tyred metro is a form of rapid transit system that uses a mix of road and rail technology. Most rubber-tyred trains are purpose-built and designed for the system on which they operate, guided buses are sometimes referred to as trams on tyres, and compared to rubber-tyred metros. The first idea for rubber-tyred railway vehicles was the work of Scotsman Robert William Thomson, in his patent of 1846 he describes his Aerial Wheels as being equally suitable for, the ground or rail or track on which they run. During the World War II German occupation of Paris, the Metro system was used to capacity, at the end of the war, the system was so worn out that thought was given as to how to renovate it. Rubber-tyred metro technology was first applied to the Paris Métro, developed by Michelin, who provided the tyres and guidance system, in collaboration with Renault, who provided the vehicles. Starting in 1951, a vehicle, the MP51. Line 11 Châtelet - Mairie des Lilas was the first line to be converted, in 1956, finally, Line 6 Charles de Gaulle - Étoile - Nation was converted in 1974 to cut down train noise on its many elevated sections. The first completely rubber-tyred metro system was built in Montreal, Canada, santiago Metro and Mexico City Metro are based on Paris Métro rubber-tyred trains. Paris Metro Line 14 was automated from its beginning, and Line 1 was converted to automatic in 2007-2011, the first automated rubber-tyred system opened in Kobe, Japan, in February 1981. It is the Portliner linking Sanomiya railway station with Port Island, the vehicle is in the form of electric multiple unit, with power supplied by both, of the guide bars, which thus also serves as the third rail. The return current passes through a return shoe to the top of one, the type of guideway used on a system varies between networks. Two parallel roll ways, each the width of a tyre, are used, either of concrete, concrete slab, H-Shape hot rolled steel, or flat steel. As on a railway, the driver does not have to steer, the Sapporo system is an exception as it uses a central guide rail only. The VAL system used in Lille and Toulouse has conventional track between the guide bars, in Paris these rails were also used to enable mixed traffic with rubber-tyred and steel-wheeled trains using the same track, particularly during conversion from normal railway track. Other systems have other sorts of flat tyre compensation and switching methods, rubber-tyres have higher rolling resistance when compared to traditional steel wheels, which leads to some advantages and disadvantages. Compared to steel wheel on rail, the advantages of rubber-tyred metro systems are. Shorter braking distances, allowing trains to be signalled closer together, quieter rides in open air due to use rubber-tyre. Greatly reduced rail wear with resulting reduced costs of those parts

12.
Rail profile
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The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron, all modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross section approximate to an I-beam, but asymmetric about a horizontal axis. The head is profiled to resist wear and to give a ride. Unlike some other uses of iron and steel, railway rails are subject to high stresses and are made of very high quality steel. It took many decades to improve the quality of the materials, minor flaws in the steel that may pose no problems in other applications can lead to broken rails and dangerous derailments when used on railway tracks. By and large, the heavier the rails and the rest of the trackwork, the rails represent a substantial fraction of the cost of a railway line. Only a small number of sizes are made by steelworks at one time. Worn, heavy rail from a mainline is often reclaimed and downgraded for re-use on a branchline, the weight of a rail per length is an important factor in determining rails strength and hence axleloads and speeds. Weights are measured in pounds per yard or kilograms per metre, rails in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States are described using imperial units. In Australia, metric units are used as in mainland Europe, commonly, in rail terminology Pound is a contraction of the expression pounds per yard and hence a 132–pound rail means a rail of 132 pounds per yard. Rails are made in a number of different sizes. Some common European rail sizes include, In the countries of former USSR65 kg/m rails and 75 kg/m rails are common, the American Society of Civil Engineers specified rail profiles in 1893 for 5-pound-per-yard increments from 40 to 100 lb/yd. Height of rail equaled width of foot for each ASCE tee-rail weight, ASCE90 lb/yd profile was adequate, but heavier weights were less satisfactory. In 1909, the American Railway Association specified standard profiles for 10 lb/yd increments from 60 to 100 lb/yd, the trend was to increase rail height/foot-width ratio and strengthen the web. Disadvantages of the foot were overcome through use of tie-plates. AREA recommendations reduced the weight of rail head down to 36%. Attention was also focused on improved fillet radii to reduce stress concentration at the web junction with the head, AREA recommended the ARA90 lb/yd profile. Old ASCE rails of lighter weight remained in use, and satisfied the demand for light rail for a few decades

13.
Railway electrification system
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A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams

14.
Third rail
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A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a transit or rapid transit system. Third rail systems are supplied from direct current electricity. The third-rail system of electrification is unrelated to the third used in dual gauge railways. Third-rail systems are a means of providing electric power to trains. On most systems, the rail is placed on the sleeper ends outside the running rails. The conductor rail is supported on ceramic insulators or insulated brackets, the trains have metal contact blocks called shoes which make contact with the conductor rail. The traction current is returned to the station through the running rails. The conductor rail is made of high conductivity steel. The conductor rails have to be interrupted at level crossings, crossovers, tapered rails are provided at the ends of each section, to allow a smooth engagement of the trains contact shoes. Because third rail systems present electric shock hazards close to the ground, a very high current must therefore be used to transfer adequate power, resulting in high resistive losses, and requiring relatively closely spaced feed points. The electrified rail threatens electrocution of anyone wandering or falling onto the tracks. This can be avoided by using platform screen doors, or the risk can be reduced by placing the rail on the side of the track away from the platform. There is also a risk of pedestrians walking onto the tracks at level crossings, the Paris Metro has graphic warning signs pointing out the danger of electrocution from urinating on third rails, precautions which Chicago did not have. The end ramps of conductor rails present a practical limitation on speed due to the impact of the shoe. The world speed record for a rail train is 174 km/h attained on 11 April 1988 by a British Class 442 EMU. In the event of a collision with an object, the beveled end ramps of bottom running systems can facilitate the hazard of having third rail penetrate the interior of a passenger car. This is believed to have contributed to the death of five passengers in the Valhalla train crash of 2015, third rail systems using top contact are prone to accumulations of snow, or ice formed from refrozen snow, and this can interrupt operations

15.
Volt
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The volt is the derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. One volt is defined as the difference in potential between two points of a conducting wire when an electric current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power between those points. It is also equal to the difference between two parallel, infinite planes spaced 1 meter apart that create an electric field of 1 newton per coulomb. Additionally, it is the difference between two points that will impart one joule of energy per coulomb of charge that passes through it. It can also be expressed as amperes times ohms, watts per ampere, or joules per coulomb, for the Josephson constant, KJ = 2e/h, the conventional value KJ-90 is used, K J-90 =0.4835979 GHz μ V. This standard is typically realized using an array of several thousand or tens of thousands of junctions. Empirically, several experiments have shown that the method is independent of device design, material, measurement setup, etc. in the water-flow analogy sometimes used to explain electric circuits by comparing them with water-filled pipes, voltage is likened to difference in water pressure. Current is proportional to the diameter of the pipe or the amount of water flowing at that pressure. A resistor would be a reduced diameter somewhere in the piping, the relationship between voltage and current is defined by Ohms Law. Ohms Law is analogous to the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, as both are linear models relating flux and potential in their respective systems, the voltage produced by each electrochemical cell in a battery is determined by the chemistry of that cell. Cells can be combined in series for multiples of that voltage, mechanical generators can usually be constructed to any voltage in a range of feasibility. High-voltage electric power lines,110 kV and up Lightning, Varies greatly. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of metals to produce electricity was zinc. In 1861, Latimer Clark and Sir Charles Bright coined the name volt for the unit of resistance, by 1873, the British Association for the Advancement of Science had defined the volt, ohm, and farad. In 1881, the International Electrical Congress, now the International Electrotechnical Commission and they made the volt equal to 108 cgs units of voltage, the cgs system at the time being the customary system of units in science. At that time, the volt was defined as the difference across a conductor when a current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power. The international volt was defined in 1893 as 1/1.434 of the emf of a Clark cell and this definition was abandoned in 1908 in favor of a definition based on the international ohm and international ampere until the entire set of reproducible units was abandoned in 1948. Prior to the development of the Josephson junction voltage standard, the volt was maintained in laboratories using specially constructed batteries called standard cells

16.
Direct current
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Direct current is a flow of electrical charge carriers that always takes place in the same direction. The current need not always have the magnitude, but if it is to be defined as dc. This contrasts with alternating current which varies the direction of flow, sources of direct current include power supplies, electrochemical cells and batteries, and photovoltaic cells and panels. The intensity, or amplitude, of a direct current might fluctuate with time, in some such cases the dc has an ac component superimposed on it. An example of this is the output of a cell that receives a modulated light communications signal. A source of dc is sometimes called a dc generator, batteries and various other sources of dc produce a constant voltage. This is called pure dc and can be represented by a straight, the peak and effective values are the same. The peak to peak value is zero because the instantaneous amplitude never changes, in some instances the value of a dc voltage pulsates or oscillates rapidly with time, in a manner similar to the changes in an ac wave. The unfiltered output of a wave or a full wave rectifier. In 1820, Hans Christian Orsted discovered that electrical current creates a magnetic field and this discovery made scientists relate magnetism to the electric phenomena. In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He improved a 50-year-old idea using lower current electricity, a vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament. At that time, the idea of lightning was not new. Edison not only invented an incandescent electric light, but an electric lighting system contained all the necessary elements to make the incandescent light safe, economical. Prior to 1879, direct current electricity had been used in lighting for the outdoors and it was in the 1880s when the modern electric utility industry began. It was an evolution from street lighting systems and from gas and it was located in Lower Manhattan, on Pearl Street. This station provided light and electricity to customers in a one square mile range, the station was called Thomas Edisons Pearl Street Electricity Generating Station. This station introduced four elements of an electric utility system, Efficient distribution, competitive price, reliable central generation

17.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth

18.
Public transport
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Public transport modes include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail, high-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world. Most public transport runs to a timetable, with the most frequent services running to a headway. Share taxis offer services in many parts of the world. Paratransit is sometimes used in areas of low demand and for people who need a door-to-door service, there are distinct differences in urban public transit between Asia, North America, and Europe. In Asia, mass transit operations are run by profit-driven privately owned and publicly traded mass transit. In North America, mass transit operations are run by municipal transit authorities. In Europe, mass transit operations are run by both state-owned and private companies. Public transport services can be profit-driven by use of pay-by-the-distance fares or funded by government subsidies in which flat rate fares are charged to each passenger. Services can be profitable through high ridership numbers and high farebox recovery ratios, or can be regulated. Fully subsidized, zero-fare services operate in some towns and cities, for geographical, historical and economic reasons, there are differences internationally regarding use and extent of public transport. It has 3,400 members from 92 countries, conveyances designed for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, on land people walked or rode an animal. Ferries appear in Greek mythology—corpses in ancient Greece were buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades, the omnibus was introduced to London in July 1829. The first passenger railway opened in 1806, it ran between Swansea and Mumbles in southwest Wales in the United Kingdom. In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in northeast England, the usability of different types of public transport, and its overall appeal, can be measured by seven criteria, although they overlap somewhat. These are speed, comfort, safety, cost, proximity, speed is calculated from total journey time including transfers. Proximity means how far passengers have to walk or otherwise travel before they can begin the public transport leg of their journey, timeliness is how long they have to wait for the vehicle. Directness records how far a journey using public transport deviates from the shortest route, an airline provides scheduled service with aircraft between airports

19.
Jean Drapeau
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Jean Drapeau, CC GOQ was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as mayor of Montreal from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986. Drapeau also successfully lobbied for the 1976 Summer Olympics and personally chose its lead architect, Roger Taillibert to design the citys iconic stadium, athletes village and inclined tower. Drapeau was also responsible for leading the citys effort to secure a Major League Baseball franchise. The son of Joseph-Napoléon Drapeau and Alberta Martineau, Jean Drapeau was born in Montreal in 1916 and his father, an insurance broker, city councilor and election worker for the Union nationale, introduced him to politics. Jean Drapeau studied law at the Université de Montréal, Drapeau was a protégé of nationalist priest Lionel Groulx in the 1930s and 1940s, and was a member of André Laurendeaus anti-conscription Ligue pour la défense du Canada. In 1942, he ran as a candidate of the nationalist Bloc Populaire and he was also a Bloc populaire candidate in the 1944 provincial election but was badly defeated in his Montreal constituency. He began his practice as a lawyer in Montreal in 1944. During the Asbestos Strike of 1949, he took on the defence of some of the strikers. In 1945, he married Marie-Claire Boucher, Jean Drapeaus profile grew as the result of his role in a public inquiry led by Pacifique Plante into police corruption in the early 1950s. When Camillien Houde retired as mayor of Montreal, Drapeau was well poised to succeed him, Drapeau was elected mayor of Montreal in 1954 at the age of 37, as the candidate of the Civic Action League, on a platform of cleaning up the administration. His long tenure would eventually turn the Parti Civique into his personal fief, during Jean Drapeaus tenure as mayor, he initiated the initial construction of the Montreal Metro subway system, Place des Arts, and Expo 67, the Universal Exposition of 1967. In 1967, he received a doctorate from Sir George Williams University. Some opposition candidates, including his opponent, were imprisoned only to be released after the end of the election in which Drapeaus party won all 52 seats. The 1970s saw the preparation of the 1976 Summer Olympics, cost overruns and scandals forced the Quebec government to take over the project 8 months before the Games opened. Moreover the Malouf commission found that in conjunction with the mistakes that were made, a culture of kickbacks thrived. The Summer Games were also marked by Drapeaus controversial decision to dismantle the Corridart public art display just before the Games, in 1982, Drapeau faced his stiffest competition in decades in the person of MCM leader Jean Doré. Drapeau retired ahead of the 1986 elections, which saw his party heavily defeated by the MCM, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Drapeau to the position of Canadian ambassador to UNESCO in Paris. Despite the nationalism of his youth, Drapeau remained neutral during the 1980 Quebec referendum, in 1967, Drapeau was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal

20.
Metro station
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A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a Metro or Subway. The station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, access trains stopping at its platforms, the location of a metro station is carefully planned to provide easy access to important urban facilities such as roads, commercial centers, major buildings and other transport nodes. Most stations are located underground, with entrances/exits leading up to ground or street level, the bulk of the station typically positioned under land reserved for public thoroughfares or parks. This is especially important where the station is serving high-density urban precincts, in other cases, a station may be elevated above a road, or at ground level depending on the level of the train tracks. The physical, visual and economic impact of the station and its operations will be greater, planners will often take metro lines or parts of lines at or above ground where urban density decreases, extending the system further for less cost. Metros are most commonly used in cities, with great populations. Alternatively, a railway land corridor is re-purposed for rapid transit. At street level the logo of the company marks the entrances/exits of the station. Usually, signage shows the name of the station and describes the facilities of the station, often there are several entrances for one station, saving pedestrians from needing to cross a street and reducing crowding. A metro station typically provides ticket vending and ticket validating systems, the station is divided into an unpaid zone connected to the street, and a paid zone connected to the train platforms. The ticket barrier allows passengers with tickets to pass between these zones. The barrier may operated by staff or more typically with automated turnstiles or gates that open when a pass is scanned or detected. Some small metro systems dispense with paid zones and validate tickets with staff in the train carriages, access from the street to ticketing and the train platform is provided by stairs, concourses, escalators, elevators and tunnels. The station will be designed to minimise overcrowding and improve flow, permanent or temporary barriers may be used to manage crowds. Some metro stations have connections to important nearby buildings. Most jurisdictions mandate that people with disabilities must have unassisted use of the station and this is resolved with elevators, taking a number of people from street level to the unpaid ticketing area, and then from the paid area to the platform. In addition, there will be stringent requirements for emergencies, with lighting, emergency exits. Stations are a part of the evacuation route for passengers escaping from a disabled or troubled train

21.
Island of Montreal
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The Island of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies and it is the largest island in the Hochelaga Archipelago, and the second largest in the Saint Lawrence River. It is the most populous island in Canada and the 37th most populous island on earth, Montreal Island is the second most populous river island in the world, as well as the most populous of any island in the world on fresh water. Saint Helens Island and Notre Dame Island are in the Saint Lawrence southeast of downtown Montreal, the Ottawa widens and becomes Lac des Deux-Montagnes north-west of the island. The Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Canal, between the tip of the island and Île Perrot, connects Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lake Saint-Louis. Another outlet of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the Rivière des Prairies, flows along the shore of the island. The island is approximately 50 km long and 16 km wide at its widest point, the island of Montreal has a shoreline of 266 km. At its centre are the three peaks of Mount Royal, the island of Montreal is the major component of the territory of the city of Montreal, along with Île Bizard, Saint Helens Island, Notre Dame Island, Nuns Island, and some 69 smaller islands. With a population of 1,861,900 inhabitants, it is by far the most populous island in Canada and it is also the 6th most populous island of the Americas and the 37th most populated island on earth, outranking Manhattan Island in New York City. Montreal and the municipalities on the island compose the administrative region of Montréal. The crossings which connect the island to its surroundings are some of the busiest bridges in the country, the Champlain Bridge and the Jacques Cartier Bridge together accommodate 101 million vehicles a year. However, by 1632 Champlain referred to the Isle de Mont-real in another map, the island derived its name from Mount Royal, and gradually spread its name to the town, which had originally been called Ville-Marie. In the Kanien’kéha, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te, in Anishninaabemowin, the land is called Mooniyaang. Flags and Coats of Arms List of rivers and water bodies of Montreal Island

22.
Longueuil
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Longueuil is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly across from Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census totaled 231,409, making it Montreals second largest suburb, Charles Le Moyne founded Longueuil as a seigneurie in 1657. It would become a parish in 1845, a village in 1848, a town in 1874, between 1961 and 2002, Longueuils borders grew three times, as it was amalgamated with surrounding municipalities, there was a strong de-amalgamation in 2006. Longueuil is a residential, commercial and industrial city and it incorporates some urban features, but is essentially a suburb. Longueuil can be classified as a town as a large portion of its residents commute to work in Montreal. Most buildings are single-family homes constructed in the post-war period, the city consists of three boroughs, Le Vieux-Longueuil, Saint-Hubert and Greenfield Park. Longueuil is the seat of the district of Longueuil. Residents of the city are called Longueuillois, the territory of New France was divided into seigneuries in order to ensure the colonys defence. Longueuil was founded in 1657 by Charles Le Moyne, a merchant from Ville-Marie, in France, the name is spelled Longueil and it is rumored that it was a mistake to spell it Longueuil. His son, Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil, built Fort Longueuil as his fortified residence and it was constructed of stone between 1685 and 1690 and had four towers. Fort Longueuil was believed to be occupied by American troops during the American Revolutionary War and it was subsequently occupied by the British. It was demolished in 1810 due to its poor condition, the archaeological remains of Fort Longueuil were recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada on May 25,1923. The site extends beneath the present-day Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Cathedral, the seigneurial system ended in 1845 and Longueuil was turned into a parish municipality named Saint-Antoine-de-Longueuil. In 1848, a portion detached from the parish and officially established as the village of Longueuil and this same village became a town in 1874, and then a city in 1920. Musician Paul Pratt notably served as the mayor from 1935-1966. Longueuils city limits expanded for the first time in 1961 when it merged with Montréal-Sud, in both cases, Longueuil was chosen as the name of the new city

23.
Yellow Line (Montreal Metro)
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The Yellow Line, formerly also known as Line 4, is one of the Montreal Metros four routes operating in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was popular when it opened for service because it connected Montreals city centre with the Expo 67 exhibition, the Yellow Line has three stations, and travels under the St. Lawrence River between the island of Montreal and Longueuil. It was part of the network of the Metro, and numbered in conjunction with Line 3. It is also the first Metro line to leave the island, all three stations on the line have been renamed since their opening. In November 1961, Montreal City Council decided to build the Metro network, the Yellow Line was not part of the original plans. A year later, however, Montreal’s bid to host the 1967 Worlds Fair was accepted, the opening of the line took place on April 1,1967. In the first four weeks, the station on Saint Helens Island served only the workers of the Expo site. It finally opened to the public on April 28,1967, in December 2011, an extension to Longueuil was announced. The Agence métropolitaine de transport published a study, Vision 2020 in December 2011, according to this study, there are plans for the Yellow Line to be extended further into the city Longueuil along Roland-Therrien Boulevard. The six new stations would connect residential areas, shopping centers, upon the introduction of the MR-73 cars in 1976, the latter stock displaced the older MR-63 cars. Since 2008, MR-63 cars are once again in use on the Yellow Line, Line 1 Green Line 2 Orange Line 3 Red Line 5 Blue Line 7 White List of Montreal Metro stations 2008 STM System Map

24.
Laval, Quebec
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Laval is a Canadian city in southwestern Quebec, north of Montreal. It forms its own region of Quebec. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third largest municipality in the province of Quebec, Laval is geographically separated from the mainland to the north by the Rivière des Mille Îles, and from the Island of Montreal to the south by the Rivière des Prairies. Laval occupies all of Île Jésus as well as the Îles Laval, Laval constitutes region 13 of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec as well as a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality and census division with geographical code 65. It also constitutes the judicial district of Laval, the first European Settlers were Jesuits in 1636 when they were granted a seigneury there. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670, in 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish municipality was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales, beginning in 1845, after nearly 200 years of a rural nature, additional municipalities were created. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose, was incorporated as a village in 1850, with the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Lavals first city in 1912, followed by LAbord-à-Plouffe being granted village status three years later, laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year on its tourist-based economy from Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the years, due to its proximity to Montreal that made it an ideal suburb. To deal with problems caused by urbanization, amalgamations occurred, LAbord-à-Plouffe amalgamated with Renaud, Laval was named after the first owner of Île Jésus, François de Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. At the time, Laval had a population of 170,000, Laval became a Regional County Municipality in 1980. Prior to that, it was the County of Laval, according to the 2011 Census of Canada, the population of Laval was an estimated 401,553, an 8.9 percent increase from the earlier census in 2006. Women constitute 51. 5% of the total population, children under 14 years of age total 17. 3%, while those of retirement age number 15. 6% resulting in a median age of 40.9 years. The 2011 census found that French was the mother tongue of 60. 8% of the population. The next most common mother tongues were English, Arabic, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Armenian, Creoles, Romanian, the citys longtime mayor, Gilles Vaillancourt, resigned on 9 November 2012, following allegations of corruption made against him in hearings of the provincial Charbonneau Commission. City councillor Basile Angelopoulos served as acting mayor until Alexandre Duplessis was selected in a vote on 23 November. Florent Gagné, a head of the Sûreté du Québec, will serve as the citys head trustee

25.
Orange Line (Montreal Metro)
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The Orange Line, is the longest and first-planned of the four lines of the Montreal Metro in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It formed part of the network, and was extended from 1980 to 1986. On April 28,2007, three new stations in Laval opened making it the line to leave Montreal Island. The Orange Line measures 30 kilometres in length and counts 31 stations and it is the longest subway line in Montreal and the second-longest in Canada after the Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. Like the rest of the Metro network, it is entirely underground, the line runs in a U-shape from Côte-Vertu in northwestern Montreal to Montmorency in Laval, northeast of Montreal. The line was planned to run between Crémazie and Place-dArmes, work on the Orange Line began on May 23,1962 on Berri Street just south of Jarry Street. In November 1962, the city of Montreal learned that it had awarded the 1967 International and Universal Exposition. On October 14,1966, the section between Henri-Bourassa and Place-dArmes opened, forming part of the original Metro network, completion of smaller sections were delayed by several months. On February 6,1967, the segment from Place-dArmes to Square-Victoria-OACI opened, followed on February 13,1967, prior to the inauguration of the initial network, extensions were proposed in all directions, including the West Island. In its 1967 Urban Plan, entitled Horizon 2000, the city of Montreal planned to build a network of almost 100 miles by the end of the twentieth century. On February 12,1971, the council of the Montreal Urban Community authorized the borrowing of C$430 million to extend the Metro and this amount increased to C$665 million in 1973, and to C$1.6 billion in 1975. This expansion plan included the costs of extending the Orange Line westward, the terminus station, Salaberry, would have been an intermodal station with Bois-Franc commuter rail station. To cut costs, three planned stations and a workshop at the end of the track were eliminated. In 1979, the Minister of Transport, Denis de Belleval, proposed to complete the extension to Du Collège. This transportation plan was rejected by the mayors of the Montreal Urban Community, the moratorium was lifted in February 1981, with a new agreement that approved the construction of one additional station, Côte-Vertu. Du Collège was considered inappropriate to play the role of a terminus, the western segment was constructed in the 1980s and was opened in several stages. On April 28,1980, it was extended from Bonaventure to Place-Saint-Henri, after a break of more than two decades of expansion, the eastern segment was extended from Henri-Bourassa by three stations into the city of Laval. This 5.2 kilometres long section required digging a tunnel underneath the Rivière des Prairies, the three stations were, in order, Cartier, De la Concorde and Montmorency

26.
New York City Subway
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Opened in 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the worlds oldest public transit systems, one of the worlds most used metro systems, and the metro system with the most stations. It offers service 24 hours per day, every day of the year, the New York City Subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world by number of stations, with 472 stations in operation. Stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson and the AirTrain JFK, in Manhattan and Queens respectively, accept the subways MetroCard but are not operated by the MTA and do not allow free transfers. Another mass transit service that is not operated by the MTA, the system is also one of the worlds longest. Overall, the system contains 236 miles of routes, translating into 665 miles of track. In 2015, the subway delivered over 1.76 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.7 million daily rides on weekdays and a combined 5.9 million rides each weekend. Of the systems 25 services,22 of them pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle. Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, in total, 40% of track is not underground despite the subway moniker. Many lines and stations have both express and local services and these lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the two are used for local trains, while the inner one or two are used for express trains. Stations served by express trains are typically major transfer points or destinations, alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870. The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons, although extensions had been planned to take the tunnel southward to The Battery, the Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system. A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, the first underground line of the subway opened on October 27,1904, almost 36 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. The fare was $0.05 and on the first day the trains carried over 150,000 passengers, the oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line. The oldest right-of-way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath. By the time the first subway opened, the lines had been consolidated into two privately owned systems, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the city built most of the lines and leased them to the companies. This required it to be run at cost, necessitating fares up to double the five-cent fare popular at the time, in 1940, the city bought the two private systems. Some elevated lines ceased service immediately while others closed soon after, integration was slow, but several connections were built between the IND and BMT, these now operate as one division called the B Division

27.
Mexico City Metro
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It is the second largest metro system in North America after the New York City Subway. In 2015, the system served 1.623 billion passengers, the inaugural STC Metro line was 12.7 kilometres long, serving 16 stations, and opened to the public on 4 September 1969. The system has expanded since then in a series of fits and starts, as of 2015, the system has 12 lines, serving 195 stations, and 226.49 kilometres of route. Ten of the lines are rubber-tyred, instead of steel wheels, they use pneumatic traction. The system survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, of the STC Metros 195 stations,24 serve two or more lines. Many stations are named for figures, places, or events in Mexican history. It has 115 underground stations,54 surface stations and 26 elevated stations, all lines operate from 5 am to midnight. This line opened on 30 October 2012, the metro has figured in Mexicos cultural history, as the inspiration for a musical composition for strings, Metro Chabancano and the 1982 Rodrigo Rockdrigo Gonzálezs 1982 song, Metro Balderas. It has also been a site for the 1990 Hollywood movie Total Recall, public intellectual, Carlos Monsiváis has commented on the cultural importance of the metro, a space for collective expression, where diverse social sectors are compelled to mingle every day. 65 of the 91 lines of bus and electric transport served this area, with four thousand units in addition to 150,000 personal automobiles peak hours, the average speed was less than walking pace. The principal promoter of the construction of the Mexico City Metro was engineer Bernardo Quintana and he carried out a series of studies that resulted in a draft plan which would ultimately lead to the construction of the Mexico City Metro. On 19 June 1967, in the crossroad of Chapultepec Avenue with Avenida Bucareli, two years later, on 4 September 1969, an orange train made the inaugural trip between stations Zaragoza and Insurgentes, thus beginning daily operation up to today. The first stage of construction comprised the construction and inauguration of lines 1,2 and 3. Between 1,200 and 4,000 specialists and 48,000 workers participated, building at least one kilometer of track per month, during this stage of construction workers uncovered two archaeological ruins, one Aztec idol, and the bones of a mammoth. By the end of the first stage, namely on 10 June 1972, the STC Metro had 48 stations and a total length of 41. Construction of lines 4 and 5 was begun and completed on 26 May and 30 August 1982, respectively, the first one from Martín Carrera to Santa Anita and the latter from Politécnico to Pantitlán. Line 4 was the first STC Metro line built as an elevated track and this construction stage took place from the beginning of 1983 through the end of 1985. Lines 1,2 and 3 were expanded to their current lengths, the length of the network was increased by 35.29 kilometres and the number of stations to 105

28.
Horsecar
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A horsecar, or horse-drawn tram, is an animal-powered tram or streetcar. These were local versions of the lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of power with the efficiency, smoothness. The first tram services in the world were started by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between Oystermouth, Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad carried passengers although its purpose was freight. Many companies adopted a design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses, the last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, the last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in Newmarket, Suffolk. In the United States the very first streetcar appeared on November 26,1832, on the New York, the cars were designed by John Stephenson of New Rochelle, New York and constructed at his company in New York City. The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars, rarely, other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances. By the mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the USA operating over 6,000 miles of track, by 1890 New Yorkers took 297 horsecar rides per capita per year. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of two years. In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse driven omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto, starting in 1892, electric streetcars emerged in Toronto and by 1894 the TSR stopped operating horsecars in Toronto. The first horse-drawn rail cars on the continent of Europe were operated from 1828 by the České Budějovice - Linz railway, Europe saw a proliferation of horsecar use for new tram services from the mid-1860s, with many towns building new networks. Tropical plantations made extensive use of animal-powered trams for passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. In some cases these systems were extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks. Surviving examples may be found in both the Yucatan and Brazil, since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered streetcars following the invention by Frank J. Sprague of a trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire, in late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in Richmond, Virginia

29.
Saint Antoine Street
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Saint Antoine Street is a street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs to the south of Downtown Montreal and north of Old Montreal and Griffintown and it crosses the Quartier international de Montréal. Saint-Antoine Street is primarily a street with traffic running westbound only from Jean dEstrées Street. Between these two points, the flows in both directions. The western terminus of Saint Antoine Street is at Saint Jacques Street in Saint-Henri, at the east the street leads onto Boulevard Ville-Marie and onto Notre-Dame Street near the Jacques Cartier Bridge. West of the boundaries of Montreal, Saint Antoine Street was the main thoroughfare of a suburban area known as Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Since 1799, the street was known as rue des Menuisiers, the road passed above an old river that was converted into a canal after the dismantlement of Montreals fortifications. From 1817 to August 1976, this street was named Craig Street, after Sir James Henry Craig, Governor General of British North America, the street was renamed in 1976 to bear the same name as its western portion. Bell Centre Tour de la Bourse World Trade Centre Montreal Palais des congrès de Montréal Palais de justice Vieux-Montréal website Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest, Banque de noms de lieux du Québec

30.
Notre-Dame Street
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Notre-Dame Street is a historic east-west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from the tip of the island to Lachine. One of the oldest streets in Montreal, Notre-Dame was created in 1672, the gardens of Château Vaudreuil, which had served as the official residence in Montreal of the Governors General of New France from 1723, fronted Notre-Dame. The streets extension in 1821 led to the demolition of Montreals Citadel, the Bingham house, which became Doneganas Hotel, was also located on Notre-Dame. In the early 1900s, it was the site of the former Dominion Park, further west, the street is home to the École de technologie supérieure and runs through Montreals Little Burgundy neighbourhood, historically the home to the English-speaking black community. Joe Beef Restaurant is located on Notre-Dame Street in Little Burgundy, the funeral of Lt. -General Sir Benjamin dUrban passed down Rue Notre Dame in 1849 and was captured in a painting by James Duncan. The funeral was instrumental in allaying bitter feelings and in preventing clashes between troops and the following the Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal on April 25,1849. In her book British Regulars in Montreal, Elinor Senior describes the cortege as follows, Sir James Edward Alexander estimated that 10,000 lined the street as minute guns sounded from Saint Helens Island to mark the movement of the cortege to the military burying ground on Victoria Road. The spire of Christ Church can be seen on the left, the building with the cupola and pennant at half-mast, in the middleground on the right, is Doneganas Hotel, which was situated at the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours streets. It was destroyed by only a few months after the procession, on August 16,1849. There are plans to turn the portion of Notre-Dame into an expressway. Notre-Dame Street continues off of the Island of Montreal, heading northeast towards Quebec City, and is known as the Chemin du Roy

31.
Streetcars in Montreal
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Prior to 1959, Montreal, Canada had an extensive streetcar system. The streetcar network had its beginnings with the era of the Montreal City Passenger Railway in 1861. The initial line was along Rue Notre Dame from Rue du Havre to Rue McGill, the City Passenger Railway became the Montreal Street Railway in 1886. The decision to use electricity instead of horses for propulsion was made in 1892, on September 21 of that same year, The Rocket, Montreals first electric streetcar made its maiden voyage. By 1894, the horsecar lines had all been converted to accommodate the new electrically powered streetcars. The Montreal Street Railway was known as one of the most innovative and progressive in North America, one of its innovations was the introduction of the Pay As You Enter system of fare collection in 1905. Prior to that time, conductors would walk through the car collecting fares meaning many passengers probably rode for free on very crowded cars, system was adopted worldwide by many other transit companies. The company also designed and built two open sightseeing cars that were in service until the late 1950s, the designs of those sightseeing cars were sold to transit companies in Quebec City, Calgary and Vancouver, who all built their own versions of the car. The Montreal Park and Island Railway was incorporated to run railway service in the suburbs of Montreal and they built lines to Lachine, St Laurent and Cartierville, and to Sault-au-Récollet. The company had an agreement with the Montreal Street Railway Co to allow MP&IR cars to run through to terminals in Montreal, the Montreal Tramways Company would own and operate the transportation system until the system was taken over by the city-owned Montreal Transportation Commission in 1951. Through the war years, Montreals streetcar system carried huge passenger loads with workers commuting to busy factories supplying the war effort, every available streetcar was put into service. The company even bought several streetcars from U. S. systems that were converting to buses, even private automobile owners were taking streetcars as rationing made gasoline and tires difficult to get. Most manufacturing of automobiles was halted about halfway through the war years so assembly plants could concentrate on military vehicles. The Montreal Tramways Company had its own difficulties in getting material, the heavy wartime traffic and deferred maintenance took its toll. The Montreal Tramways Company faced major challenges at the end of the war, there was much rehabilitation work that had to be done to the track, the overhead trolley wires and the streetcars themselves. There was also much more competition, manufacturing of automobiles for the civilian market started up again and after the deprivations of the war, many people wanted one. Many former streetcar passengers were now buying their first cars, streetcar passenger numbers were starting to fall. The much-touted freedom of the automobile encouraged the development of new neighborhoods further from the city centre, traffic congestion was becoming a bigger problem, especially in the narrower streets of the older parts of downtown Montreal

32.
Government of Canada
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The Government of Canada or more formally Her Majestys Government, is the federal government of Canada, a country in North America, composed of 10 provinces, Ottawa, and 3 territories. The head of government is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose party the Liberal Party of Canada won the majority of seats in the Canadian Parliament in the 2015 Canadian federal election, in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the Canadian constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, in Canadian English, the word government is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions that govern the country, and to the current political leadership. In federal department press releases, the government has sometimes referred to by the phrase Government. The same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase Canadas New Government, as per the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political. The executive is formally called the Queen-in-Council, the legislature the Queen-in-Parliament. The government is defined by the constitution as the Queen acting on the advice of her privy council, however, the Privy Council—consisting mostly of former members of parliament, chief justices of the supreme court, and other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full. This body of ministers of the Crown is the Cabinet, one of the main duties of the Crown is to ensure that a democratic government is always in place, which means appointing a prime minister to thereafter head the Cabinet. The monarch and governor general typically follow the advice of their ministers. The royal and viceroyal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional constitutional crisis situations, politicians can sometimes try to use to their favour the complexity of the relationship between the monarch, viceroy, ministers, and parliament, and the publics general unfamiliarity with it. Per democratic tradition, the House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament, the Senate, thus, reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint. The Constitution Act,1867, outlines that the general is responsible for summoning parliament in the Queens name. After a number of sessions, each parliament comes to an end via dissolution. As a general election typically follows, the timing of a dissolution is usually politically motivated, the sovereign is responsible for rendering justice for all her subjects, and is thus traditionally deemed the fount of justice. However, she does not personally rule in cases, instead the judicial functions of the Royal Prerogative are performed in trust. Below this is the Federal Court, which cases arising under certain areas of federal law. It works in conjunction with the Federal Court of Appeal and Tax Court of Canada, in some cases, however, the jurisdictions of the federal and provincial parliaments may be more vague. For instance, the federal parliament regulates marriage and divorce in general, other examples include the powers of both the federal and provincial parliaments to impose taxes, borrow money, punish crimes, and regulate agriculture

33.
Saint Lawrence River
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The Saint Lawrence River is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. The Saint Lawrence River flows in a roughly north-easterly direction, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and forming the primary drainage outflow of the Great Lakes Basin. It traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is part of the boundary between Ontario, Canada, and the U. S. state of New York. This river also provides the basis of the commercial Saint Lawrence Seaway, the estuary begins at the eastern tip of Île dOrléans, just downstream from Quebec City. The river becomes tidal around Quebec City, the St. Lawrence River runs 3,058 kilometres from the farthest headwater to the mouth and 1,197 km from the outflow of Lake Ontario. The farthest headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing, the average discharge below the Saguenay River is 16,800 cubic metres per second. At Quebec City, it is 12,101 m3/s, the average discharge at the rivers source, the outflow of Lake Ontario, is 7,410 m3/s. The St. Lawrence River includes Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal, Lake Saint Francis at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, pierre Archipelago and the smaller Mingan Archipelago. Other islands include Île dOrléans near Quebec City and Anticosti Island north of the Gaspé and it is the second longest river in Canada. Lake Champlain and the Ottawa, Richelieu, Saguenay, and Saint-François rivers drain into the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence River is in an active zone where fault reactivation is believed to occur along late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of Iapetus Ocean. The faults in the area are related and are called the Saint Lawrence rift system. According to the United States Geological Survey, the St. Lawrence Valley is a province of the larger Appalachian division, containing the Champlain. However, in Canada, where most of the valley is, it is considered part of a distinct Saint Lawrence Lowlands physiographic division. Lawrence River itself was Jacques Cartier, at that time, the land along the river was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, at the time of Cartiers second voyage in 1535. Because Cartier arrived in the estuary on St. Lawrences feast day, the St. Lawrence River is partly within the U. S. and as such is that countrys sixth oldest surviving European place-name. The earliest regular Europeans in the area were the Basques, who came to the St Lawrence Gulf, the Basque whalers and fishermen traded with indigenous Americans and set up settlements, leaving vestiges all over the coast of eastern Canada and deep into the Saint Lawrence River. Basque commercial and fishing activity reached its peak before the Armada Invencibles disaster, initially, the whaling galleons from Labourd were not affected by the Spanish defeat

34.
South Shore (Montreal)
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The South Shore is the general term for the suburbs of Montreal, Quebec located on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River opposite the Island of Montreal. The South Shore is located within the Quebec administrative region of Montérégie, the largest city on the South Shore area is Longueuil. The South Shore is not represented by any sort of regional government and this is why its territory does not correspond to precise geographic boundaries. However, in 1998, a group of researchers at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique concluded that the South Shore of Montreal consisted of four Regional County Municipalities, today, there are two distinguishable sub-divisions of the South Shore. The entire south shore comprising the Urban agglomeration of Longueuil and the Couronne-Sud totals 700,904 inhabitants, the Greater South Shore has a total population of 970,779 people. However, at scale, the proportion of people who commute to Montreal for work declines

35.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

36.
Premier of Quebec
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The Premier of Quebec is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current Premier of Quebec is Philippe Couillard of the Quebec Liberal Party, the Premier of Quebec is appointed as president of the Executive Council by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, the viceregal representative of the Queen in Right of Quebec. The Premier is most usually the head of the party winning the most seats in the National Assembly of Quebec, an exception to this rule occurs when the winning partys leader fails to win the riding in which he or she is running. In that case, the premier would have to attain a seat by winning a by-election and this has happened, for example, to Robert Bourassa in 1985. The role of the Premier of Quebec is to set the priorities on the opening speech of the National Assembly. He or she represents the party and must have the confidence of the assembly, as expressed by votes on budgets. The term premier is used in English, while French employs premier ministre, in at least one instance, the term Prime Minister of the Province of Quebec was used in an English-language advertisement. The term is used for the Podium Ceremony of the annual Formula One Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal. The Premiers of Quebec are chosen according to the principle of responsible government and this principle is a matter of constitutional convention, since the Constitution Act,1867 does not mention it. Politics of Quebec List of premiers of Quebec List of premiers of Quebec by time in office Prime Minister of Canada Premier Premier of Quebec official site

37.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930

38.
Camillien Houde
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Camillien Houde CBE OStJ was a Quebec politician, a Member of Parliament, and a four-time mayor of Montreal – one of the few Canadian politicians to have served at all three levels of government. Houde was born in Montreal on 13 August 1889 and died there on 11 September 1958 and he was the only surviving child of Azade Houde and Josephine Frenette. He is descended from the first Houde ancestor, Louis Houde, Louis Houdes son was Louis H. who married Marie Lemay in 1685. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec as a member of the Conservative Party for the riding of Montréal–Sainte-Marie in the 1923 election and he was defeated in the 1927 election, but re-elected in a by-election on 24 October 1928. He was elected leader of the Conservative Party on 10 July 1929, led the party to defeat in the 1931 election and he resigned as Conservative leader on 19 September 1932. He moved to politics and lost in a bid for election as a Conservative candidate for the Canadian House of Commons in a 1938 by-election in the Montreal riding of St. Mary. In 1940, he was arrested and charged under the Defence of Canada Regulations and he was imprisoned at Camp Petawawa in Ontario until the end of the war. He ran again in St. Mary, this time as an independent candidate, in the 1945 federal election and he won a seat as an independent candidate in the riding of Papineau in the 1949 federal election by less than 100 votes. He did not run for re-election in the 1953 election, Houde became a figure of ridicule in parts of English Canada because of his conduct in opposition to conscription. The Star accused Drew of making a pact with Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis to appoint Houde to the Cabinet as Drews Quebec lieutenant should the Tories win the election. The newspapers campaign reached its culmination the Saturday before the election with a front page headline reading. Concurrent to his career in provincial and federal politics, Houde was mayor of Montreal from 1928 to 1932, from 1934 to 1936, from 1938 to 1940, when World War II came, Houde then campaigned against conscription. On 2 August 1940, Houde publicly urged the men of Quebec to ignore the national registration measure introduced by the federal government. Upon his release on 18 August 1944, he was greeted by a crowd of 50,000 Montrealers. Houde was made Chevalier of the Légion dhonneur and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1935, on his death in 1958, Camillien Houde was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec in an Italian marble replica of Napoleons tomb. Mayor Houde was a mayor in the areas of patronage, unemployment. He was also responsible for some of the public park improvements in Montreal including the park on Mont Royal with its man-made lake. Politics of Quebec List of Quebec general elections List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition Timeline of Quebec history Conscription Crisis of 1944 Tard, Camillien Houde, Le Cyrano de Montréal

39.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

40.
War effort
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In politics and military planning, a war effort refers to a coordinated mobilization of societys resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. The concept was adapted and used by Russia, the United Kingdom. The term war effort was coined in conjunction with these efforts, previously, most military supplies were either common elements of the economy or specialized instruments produced only for war purposes by industries dedicated to the task. Crossover use of elements of society and economy for wartime uses became important due to scarcity of manpower. The complex decisions involved in conversion to use also necessitated organization and a bureaucracy. Implicit in the concept of war effort was that the society was expected to contribute in some way. Higher productivity, refraining from labor disputes, strikes, etc. —might determine the difference between victory and defeat

41.
Saint Catherine Street
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Saint Catherine Street is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The street runs parallel to the largest segments of Montreals underground city, the series of interconnected office tower basements and shopping complexes that make up this main thoroughfare lie immediately north of the street. Educational institutions located on or near the street include Concordia University, McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal, Dawson College, Saint Catherine Street has been home to many of Montreals prominent department stores, including such former retailers as Eatons, Morgans, Simpsons and Dupuis Freres. Today, the Morgans building is home to Hudsons Bay Company, the Simpsons building is now shared by the La Maison Simons department store and a multiplex cinema, while Eatons was converted to the Complexe Les Ailes. Dupuis Frères, located further east at Saint Catherine and Saint Hubert, is now a shopping mall, the Ogilvys department store remains a fixture on Saint Catherine Street, although it is now a collection of boutiques rather than a single store. The Montreal Forum, once home to the Montreal Canadiens, is located on Saint Catherine Street at Atwater Street. It has since turned into a shopping and movie theatre complex called the Pepsi Forum. Due to the Forums presence on this street, Saint Catherine was used as the parade route whenever the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. This was once referred to as the route by Mayor Jean Drapeau, during the Canadiens dynasties of the mid-century. The segment in the district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is also an important commercial area in that neighbourhood, for one weekend in July every year, Saint Catherine Street hosts Canadas largest open-air sidewalk sale. 2 km of the street between Jeanne-Mance Street and St. Mark is closed to traffic, and vendors from nearby shopping centres bring out their sale merchandise, there is also live entertainment along the street. It is estimated that over 300,000 people visit the downtown during this event, bus service is provided by the STMs 15 Sainte-Catherine and 34 Sainte-Catherine which both operate 7 days a week. Montreals Place des Arts, the primary concert venue, is located on Saint Catherine Jeanne-Mance and Saint-Urbain streets. Other churches on the street include St. James the Apostle Anglican Church, a Gay Village extends along Sainte-Catherine Street in the east end of downtown, between Saint-Hubert and Papineau. Beaudry Metro station, on the Green Line, provides the most convenient access to the Village, summer is also punctuated with special events and festivals such as the art festival FIMA, Festival International Montréal en arts, Pride Celebrations and Divers/Cité. The strip clubs which made their home on Saint Catherine have now declined in number, though a few prominent clubs, such as Supersexe and Super Contact, remain

42.
Saint Denis Street
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Saint Denis Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Montreal, Quebec. It extends from the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel on Saint Paul Street in Old Montreal to the bank of the Rivière des Prairies at the end of the island. It is designated Route 335 from Sherbrooke Street to the Metropolitan Expressway, along its length, it passes through the boroughs of Ville-Marie, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, and Ahuntsic-Cartierville. It becomes primarily a street north of the Metropolitan Expressway. The eastern portion of the Montreal Metros Orange Line runs parallel to the street and it is named for Saint Denis of Paris. South of the Ville-Marie Expressway, the street crosses Old Montreal and is named rue Bonsecours, north of the Ville-Marie Expressway, it becomes Saint Denis Street and crosses the Quartier Latin. In the Quartier Latin, its vocation is primarily touristic and leisure-related, with restaurants, near Saint Catherine Street, it crosses the downtown Université du Québec à Montréal campus while a little further north, it borders the Cégep du Vieux Montréal. North of Sherbrooke Street, Saint Denis Street enters the borough of Le Plateau Mont-Royal, in the Plateau-Mont-Royal and Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie to the north, it is a commercial street lined with small stores. To the west, Saint Laurent Boulevard also serves a commercial purpose, in the boroughs of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension and Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Saint Denis Street is mainly residential. However, several businesses including green grocers and Vietnamese restaurants are located on the street and it is also one of the gateways to the Metropolitan Expressway. North of Crémazie Boulevard, it is a one-way northbound street with little traffic since the northbound Highway 335 continues along the Lajeunesse Street, Saint Denis Street opened in the early nineteenth century on land acquired by Louis-Joseph Papineau and his aunt Perine Charles Cherrier, widow of Denis Viger. Extended several times, Saint Denis Street developed gradually after the construction of Saint Jacques Cathedral in 1836, subsequently, it reached Sherbrooke Street near the end of the 19th century. During the mid-nineteenth century, this tree-lined residential street was inhabited by several representatives of the French Canadian elite, before the end of the century, it begun to transform into a commercial street, ascending slowly northward. In the early 20th century, the section of the Saint Denis Street between Dorchester Street and Sherbrooke Street became the center of Montreals francophone intellectual elite, located in the area were the Université Laval à Montréal, the École Polytechnique de Montréal, the Saint-Sulpice Library and many bookstores. It was deserted by academics following the relocation of Université of Montreal, christiane Abboud, Les rues de Montréal, Répertoire historique, Montréal, Éditions du Méridien,1995,23 cm,547 p. p.423

43.
Saint Jacques Street
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Saint Jacques Street is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The street is known by two names, St. James Street in English and rue Saint-Jacques in French. Both names are used in English and French, although Saint-Jacques is the most common for geographical reference, St. James Street is usually used in reference to the streets historic importance as a financial district. A main thoroughfare passing through Old Montreal, the street was first opened in 1672, the portion between McGill Street and place Saint Henri was originally called Bonaventure Street. This name has passed down to Place Bonaventure, Bonaventure Expressway, at the time of its construction in 1928, the Royal Bank of Canadas new headquarters at 360 St. James Street was the tallest building in the British Empire. The St James St. area was also the office of the Bank of Montreal. It was also home to the brokerage houses such as Nesbitt, Thomson and Company, Pitfield, MacKay, Ross, Royal Securities Corporation. 215, McMaster Meighen, lawyers 225, National Trust Co, 231-235, Montreal Star 240, Guardian Trust Co. A number chose to move their official head offices to Toronto, Ontario. As a result, the St. James Street financial district has all, during the 1990s, the Montreal Expos baseball club unveiled plans to build a new stadium in downtown Montreal, right off St. Jacques Street, just south of the Bell Centre. When provincial funding for the new building fell through, the Expos did not continue with their plan and that stretch of Saint Jacques is now undergoing considerable gentrification. These include Bank of Montreals domed Montreal Main Branch, the headquarters of Royal Bank of Canada, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, the Molson Bank. More modern buildings include the Montreal World Trade Centre and the Stock Exchange Tower, farther west, St. Jacques Street runs through the residential neighbourhoods of Little Burgundy, Saint-Henri, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Lachine. Lionel-Groulx and Place-Saint-Henri Metro stations are located on St, the McGill University Health Centre superhospital will front Saint-Jacques in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. City of Montreal website for St. James St

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Quebec Autoroute 40
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It is one of the two major connections between Montreal and Quebec City, the other being Autoroute 20 on the south shore of the St. Lawrence. Autoroute 40 is currently 347 km long, between the Ontario–Quebec boundary and the interchange with Autoroute 25, the route is signed as part of the Trans-Canada Highway. The portion of Autoroute 40 from the Ontario border to Autoroute 25 is part of the Trans-Canada Highway, two sections of Autoroute 40 were not part of the original plans, The original intention was to bypass Trois-Rivières to the north. In addition, a different route was planned around Sainte-Foy south of Jean Lesage International Airport. While the right-of-ways of both still exist and may still be developed in the future as congestion increases, there are no immediate plans to renew construction. In 1997, the highway was renamed Autoroute Félix-Leclerc after the late Quebec artist, List of crossings of the Ottawa River List of bridges in Montreal A-40 at Exitlists. com A-40 at Quebec Autoroutes Virtual tour of A-40 Transports Quebec Map

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Toronto subway
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The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. It is a system consisting of three heavy rail lines operating predominantly underground and one elevated light metro line, collectively encompassing 69 stations and 68.3 kilometres of track. It accommodated an average of 1,066,100 passenger trips each weekday during the quarter of 2015. There are 4 rapid transit lines in Toronto plus another under construction, Line 1 Yonge–University, is the longest and busiest rapid transit line in the system. It opened as the Yonge subway in 1954 with a length of 7.4 kilometres, Today, the line is U-shaped having two northern terminals looping on its southern end via Union Station. An 8. 6-kilometre, six-station extension of Line 1 north to Vaughan is under construction, Line 2 Bloor–Danforth, opened in 1966, runs parallel to Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue between Kipling Station in Etobicoke and Kennedy Station in Scarborough. There is a plan to extend Line 2 eastwards from Kennedy Station to Scarborough Town Centre, Line 3 Scarborough is an above-ground medium-capacity rail line serving the citys eponymous suburban district. The line runs from Kennedy Station to McCowan Station passing Scarborough Town Centre and this is the only rapid transit line in Toronto to use Intermediate Capacity Transit System technology. There is a plan to close and dismantle Line 3 after Line 2 is extended to Scarborough Town Centre, Line 5 Eglinton is a 19-kilometre light rail line under construction scheduled to open in 2021. The line will have 25 stations of which 15 will be underground, here is a list of line, extension and station openings on the Toronto subway system. Canadas first subway, the Yonge subway, opened in 1954 with a length of 7.4 kilometres, the line ran under or parallel to Yonge Street between Eglinton Avenue and Union Station. It replaced the Yonge streetcar line, Canadas first streetcar line, in 1963, the line was extended under University Avenue north to Bloor Street to connect with the Bloor-Danforth subway at the double-deck St. George Station. In 1974, the line was extended from Eglinton Station north to Finch Station, the Spadina segment of the line was constructed north from St. George Station initially to Wilson Station in 1978, and eventually to Downsview Station in 1996. Part of the Spadina segment runs in the median of an expressway, four decades of extensions gave the line a U-shaped route running from its two northern terminals and looping on its southern end at Union Station. As of 1996, the line was 30.2 kilometres long, opened in 1966, the Bloor–Danforth subway runs east-west under or near Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue. It replaced the Bloor streetcar line, initially, the subway line ran between Keele Station to Woodbine Station. In 1968, the line was extended west to Islington Station and east to Warden Station, opened in 1985, the Scarborough RT is a light metro line running from Kennedy Station to McCowan station. The TTC started to construct the line to use Canadian Light Rail Vehicles and this line was never extended, and the current plan is to close and dismantle the line, replacing it with an extension of Line 2 to Scarborough Town Centre

A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid …

Third rail at the West Falls ChurchMetro station near Washington, D.C., electrified at 750 volts. The third rail is at the top of the image, with a white canopy above it. The two lower rails are the ordinary running rails; current from the third rail returns to the power station through these.